The Messy Apartment Debacle

Submitted by A Team to Remember

Michael Arnell

Jackson Caldwell

Lance Grange

 Katherine Hammond

 Emilee Sorensen

Salt Lake Community College

COMM 1010-009

Teacher: Shirene McKay

November 19, 2012

Table of Contents

Executive Summary…………………………………………………………………………..3

Product Description…………………………………………………………………………..4

Methods………………………………………………………………………………………4

Problem Question…………………………………………………………………………….4

Analyzing the Problem……………………………………………………………………….4

Setting Criteria………………………………………………………………………………..6

Brainstorming Solutions……………………………………………………………………...7

Analyzing the Solution…………………………………………………………………….....8

Implementing the Solution………………………………………………………….......……9

Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………………10

Works Cited………………………………………………………………………………….10

Appendix 1: A Team to Remember Contract……………………………………………...…11

Appendix 2: Solution Analysis Chart………………………………………………………...13

Executive Summary

The following report explains the solution to a problem that was placed before our group, “A Team to Remember,” and how we came up with that solution. When we were looking at our problem we tried to find as many solutions to the problem as we could. The problem that we chose to solve was not a complex problem but one that we all faced. It was to find the best way to keep and maintain a clean apartment with five roommates. The goal of this report will be to find the best solution and to have everyone in the apartment agree to it.

During the class time that was allotted to us, we came up with the open-ended question that gave us the room to brainstorm up solutions. We looked at as many solutions as we could and we did the best we could to come up with many solutions that would fit everyone’s personal needs. We had specific criteria that would be used to view each solution with, and in the end the one that best fit in the criteria was the one we chose to use in implementing the solution.

We looked at the solution that we thought best fit our circumstance. It stated that once a week the roommates would get together and have a meeting/walk-through of the entire apartment, after the walk through they would assign members to clean or to continue to keep clean the areas of the apartment. We would than set deadlines for when the work was to be completed and then this process would be repeated weekly, with the roommates being held responsible every week.

Project Description

For this group project we were assigned to be in a group of five students. We had to choose a problem between several: ours is Case #9, The Messy Roommates.  We are to act as five roommates that aren’t getting along because the apartment is messy and none of the chores are getting done. This seemed to be a good problem for us to solve as we are all students and potentially could be living outside of our parent’s homes and be in this exact situation. 

As school became more demanding, the household chores took second priority and the apartment became messy and undesirable for a few of the roommates to live in.  To solve this case we have been meeting in class to solve the problem at hand, and have used email and texting to correspond and help each other outside of class. This is an important problem to solve, so that we will know how to deal with messy roommates, or how to talk our clean roommates into accepting our mess.

Methods
The topic we choose, as a team was the challenge to keep an apartment room clean living with five roommates. The topic itself is one we all know far too well, whether it’s at our own home or in an apartment full of friends, at one point or another we have all experienced having a messy room and having to clean it. To build team unity and provide identity we came up with a team name for our group: A Team to Remember. We all felt it was appropriate for us because we all want to do the best job on this project and those teams that do the best are always remembered. All great teams work together to get the task done no matter how big the hurdle. We will describe the steps that our group took to accomplish our purpose and our goal.

Part I: Problem Question
We came up with an open-ended question for the posed problem on having messy roommates, which we chose as a group. An open stated question was the best way to go about it because having a closed question would limit the amount of ideas and solutions we as a group could come up with. We agree that our question meets the characteristics of an effective problem question. 

Our final question is: “What would be the best approach to keeping and maintaining a clean apartment with five roommates?”

Part II: Analysis of the problem
It was interesting to see how our group discussed the pros and cons of our problem and solutions as we looked deep into them. In our group we had males and females. All of us had different thought processes, but we had each experienced living in a messy place. We had three members that had served LDS missions and we all were able to share how we handled maintaining our apartment and what solutions we would use if we had a messy roommate. We all had different thoughts and at first we may have been closed off to fully express our thoughts, but as time went on we opened up and were fully able to brainstorm and discuss the best solutions for our problem without being worried about what the other group members would say or think.   

A.	Characteristics
Like any good open-ended question, there were positive and negative characteristics to our problem. Some symptoms that indicate that there is a problem concerning the cleanliness of an apartment of five roommates includes the lack of responsibility the roommates have, busy school students not prioritizing their personal time to take care of an apartment and the grungy items and the smells coming from the shared apartment. The issues appear to be perceived health, morals and control. One roommate may just want the entire apartment to be clean all of the time. Some roommates may be tired of cleaning the apartment all of the time and want to take a break from cleaning. The landlord might have a time set aside each week or month to come through the apartment and make sure that it is still clean. The landlord could kick you out of the apartment if it wasn’t kept clean. Having a messy apartment can affect many people as we have discussed. It may be stressful to live in such an environment and that could take away your ability to study well and get the grades you want to get. Also living in an apartment with other roommates, you will have to make sacrifices so the place stays looking nice. If everyone is willing to sacrifice a little bit of their time, it will go a long way. It is proven that you will better succeed if you are responsible (Kurtus 1).

B.  Stakeholders
There are many people that this issue affects. The roommates are the cause and they will also be the solution to the problem. The roommates will be affected is many ways. If they learn to work together and get the apartment clean, they will build teamwork skills, learn responsibility and please people who come to their apartment. The next big group is the landlord of the apartment. They want the place to be clean and presentable at all times and have to ensure that they provide a safe living environment for all apartment owners. “What about roommates? A landlord can limit the number of occupants for health and safety or legitimate business reasons” (Stewart 1). The landlord has a sense of trust when he gives young single adults a place to live. He expects them to keep the place clean and nice. It’s their job to do so. Also, the friends and the family of the roommates will be affected. They don't want to go to a messy and smelly place. People may not want to come over to the apartment if it is a mess. It also could affect the future of other students that want to have an apartment at the same place and makes things harder on the students living there in the future, such as cost of the apartment, how many to an apartment, what is allowed inside the apartment, etc.. Our actions don’t just affect us they affect everyone around us.

C.	History: 
In the past everyone did their own dishes and randomly cleaned the bathroom and the living room every so often. These solutions worked for the first month, but then when school got more intense, nobody did chores anymore. Now the apartment is a complete mess, and three out of the five roommates don’t really care to clean up after themselves, they are too busy with school. Messy living quarters are socially distracting, the apartment probably embarrasses the two that are voicing their opinion, and if they normally had people over for parties and such, they probably don’t anymore. Their social life is probably suffering, which is definitely a reason to make a case about the apartment to the other three roommates. 

D.  Policies and Politics 
Most of the roommates most likely would have different schedules so it would be hard to have a set time when everyone would help out and clean the apartment. Also, some would not feel that they needed to help out because they didn't make that big of a mess in the first place. If you had someone coming over for a very important gathering, you wouldn't want a messy apartment. If you had friends or family coming over, you would want the place to look as nice as possible to show that you were responsible enough to be living on your own. The landlord will also have rules on cleanliness, depending on which apartment complex you choose to live in. 

E.  Resources 
 The first thing Michael did was talk to his mother about her opinion on having messy roommates. Her response did not surprise him at all. It was just like any other mom’s response would be. She told him that she would expect him to be clean and that his roommates would keep it clean also and that they would need to create a plan in order for the apartment to stay clean. The second person he talked to was his buddy Mike. With the same question being asked, Mike gave him a completely different answer. He said he would be patient with his roommates, but if they kept it up, that’s when he would get mad at them and talk to them about it. 

Michael also found a few online articles that were extremely useful during our time of preparation. The articles stated the importance of having a clean apartment and gave tips on approaches to keeping it clean, while dealing with messy roommates.

As a group, we also consulted our textbook more than once to look for teamwork skills and responsibility skills. Also, we wanted to figure out ways to improve our problem solving strategies as a group so that we could avoid harmful disputes. Chapter 7 on group communication was very beneficial to our group. It helped us to delegate our parts and be open to other member’s ideas.

Part III: Criteria
Understanding the criteria helps all of us stay on the same page and make good solutions accordingly. We realized as a group that if everyone is not on the same page we could not make good solutions or even brainstorm well. Readjusting and refocusing is what we had to do to be able to pull ourselves together as a team and come up these solutions.
	
A. Our general goal was to come up with a realistic solution that would best satisfy all the roommates.

 B.  Specific Criteria
	     
 A good solution…

1.	Apply principles of effective communication that we are learning in the class.
2.	Be achievable within our four-week time frame.
3.	Costs less than $25 for cleaning supplies.
4.	Make area livable/ presentable once a week.
5.	Solution will help us maintain responsibility.
6.	Solution will help us maintain time in keeping things clean.
7.	Be realistic in your work.

Part IV: Brainstorming Possible Solutions
Our group had a good time brainstorming the best solutions so we could achieve our goal and please every roommate involved. We were all open to suggestions and we didn’t turn an idea down. We came up with some good ideas helping us move forward to the best and most realistic solution. “Creativity is so delicate a flower that praise tends to make it bloom while discouragement often nips it in the bud” (Lehrer 1). 

Here are some solutions we came up with:
1.	Pick a day for yourself when you can get up and do any necessary deep cleaning. 
2.	Have everyone look after one room, make sure that they keep it tidy every day and that deep cleaning is done once a week
3.	Rotations: make it so that everyone cleans a different room in a cycle so that no one is stuck cleaning a certain room for too long.
4.	Do a walkthrough of the apartment to assess at first what needs to be done.
5.	Split the cost of cleaning materials to everyone. 
6.	If you don’t want to follow the cleaning rules you will be kicked out of the apartment.
7.	Keep each other accountable.
8.	Discuss arising problems civilly

Part V: Solution Analysis
A.	List of Possible Solutions:
•	Everyone pitch in to hire a maid.
•	Rotations: make it so that everyone cleans a different room in a cycle so that no one is stuck cleaning one room for too long.
•	Do a walkthrough of the apartment to assess at first what needs to be done.
•	Split the cost of cleaning materials to everyone. 
•	If you don’t want to follow the cleaning rules you will be kicked out of the apartment.

B.  Chart
We completed a chart showing how we were able to choose the most logical solution for keeping and maintaining a clean apartment. This chart is found in Appendix 2. The solutions are listed across the top, while the criteria are listed going down on the left. We ranked each solution and criteria according to how well it would solve the issue that we were facing. Some of them were very realistic, and some made no logical sense at all.

One solution scored highest in most areas and had the most combined points in the end and it became an evident solution, based on our criteria and reasoning.
	
C.  Final Solution
Our final solution was to have a weekly meeting. It was the solution we thought, as a group would be the best way to solve the messy apartment problem. Most students don’t really take priority in cleaning or maintaining a clean apartment, so having day set aside during the week would help them see what needed to be done each week and what would be their job that particular week. Many students discover the need to develop or hone their time management skills when they arrive at college (Kurtus, 1). Managing your time is also very important. It is difficult for some students to manage time but with a weekly meeting that will help with that problem. Once a week we will get together to walk through the apartment and find out what needs to be cleaned. We have come up with some steps to follow as a guide to help us along. First thing we are going to do is have Katherine make a day and time for the meeting. It all depends on Katherine to get us together and work around our busy schedules.  The second step is that we are going to have Emilee make sure that everyone in the group can make it that day at that time. It’s a follow up to what Katherine already did. Its Emilee’s job to let everyone know the day prior so we can adjust the time and date if we need to. Everyone needs to have flexibly and an open mind to the busy schedule’s that people have. Third step is that we will brainstorm and think about what would help us all get together. What would motivate us to get together and take time out of our busy schedule to have a meeting? The answer was treats and we assigned that to Lance. The fourth step was for Michael. He was assigned to do a walk-through of the apartment to see what needed to be done that week and assign chores accordingly. It’s important to be fair to everyone and not just assign the same chores to the same people every week, but instead switch it up every week so that it is a balanced schedule and a fair assignment. Fifth and most important is DO WORK!! Without work the whole meeting goes to waste. Nothing is accomplished if no one does their chore and puts in a good effort to do their best. We all understand that it’s not fun to clean and nobody really likes to do it, but it is important. It builds good character and it helps you avoid bad habits of getting into messy situations. “Focus on one habit at time. You will need to consciously focus on doing your new behavior until it becomes a habit. Because the new behavior is unfamiliar, carrying it out requires additional physical and mental resources. Discipline yourself to just work on one habit at a time; otherwise you risk none of your desired behaviors becoming permanent habits” (Joseph 1).

D.  Possible Negative Consequences
Roommates might think it will be compromising to one’s schedule, making it difficult to do their job and have time for school work.

1.	Going to school is hard enough as it is. Students don’t worry about their apartment and how messy it is. We as students need our study time and students might discuss they don’t have time to clean.
2.	Money is always a big issue when it comes to an apartment. Most students don’t even have money to buy food, let alone supplies to clean.

There are many things you can do to solve these negative thoughts. Coming up with the weekly meeting was a good idea.  You can talk about issues and possible concerns. The whole purpose of having the meeting is to avoid negative consequences.

Part VI: Implementation of the Solution
After deciding on the weekly meeting solution, we are now ready to report our findings and make our recommendations to future roommates and owners of any apartment.

We, as members of “A Team to Remember” group, recommend that there should be a plan at all time for the weekly meeting to be successful. Like we have discussed, everyone in our group had an assigned part that they had to do during the meeting.

We recommend that those who are assigning chores be respectful of others and their ability to achieve the chores we assign. Those in charge should understand and be familiar with the other roommate’s schedules and be flexible if one can’t make it on the set day for the meeting. It’s important for a leader to be established. When there is a leader, things run more smoothly and there is someone that’s not afraid to do what is necessary for the better of the group.

Members living in the apartment will be informed of any other changes or updates on the plan or chores they might be doing. There will always be a way for somebody to get the chore done, whether it is him or herself, or someone else in the apartment. We want to take pride in being responsible and be willing to help out at any time.

Conclusion

Whose responsibility is it to make sure the apartment is clean and stays clean? What is the best way to keep the apartment clean? These are two questions that we think will help you as the reader understand how we decided on our solution. Living in an apartment with others is a great experience, but at the same time can be a nightmare. We made a weekly plan as follows: set a day and time for the meeting, make sure everyone knows about the meeting, bring treats, walk through the apartment and assign chores, and do the actual work. This is the best solution because it fits with our schedule and then we also know what needs to be done and who is responsible for that task.

Works Cited

Dartmouth, . "Managing Your Time." Academic Skills Center (2012): n.pag. Web. 11 Nov 2012. <http://www.dartmouth.edu/~acskills/success/time.html >.

Joseph, Michelle. "12 Tips for Breaking Bad Habits." Make or Break Habits (2010): 1. Web. 11 Nov 2012. <http://www.make-or-break-habits.com/12-tips-for-breaking-bad-habits/>.

Kurtus, Ron. "Being Responsible Shows Character." School For Champions (2001): n.pag. Web. 11 Nov 2012. <http://www.school-for-champions.com/character/responsible.htm>. 

Lehrer, Jonah. "Brainstorming Doesn't Really Work." New Yorker (2012): n.pag. Web. 11 Nov 2012. <http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2012/01/30/120130fa_fact_lehrer>.

Stewart, Marcia. "Legal and Illegal Reasons Landlords May Turn Rental Applicants Down." NOLO Law for All (2012): n.pag. Web. 11 Nov 2012. <http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/free-books/renters-rights-book/chapter1-2.html>.

Appendix 1: A Team to Remember Contract

Class: Comm 1010-09
Semester: Fall 2012
Date Created: Oct 19, 2012

Team Name: A Team to Remember
Case # and Description: #9 Messy Roommates
Location and Type: Classroom, Face-to-Face
Team Members in Attendance
Emilee Sorensen
Lance Grange
Jackson Caldwell
Katherine Hammond
Michael Arnell

Team Norms
Relational Norms
1. Everyone participates and gives a good amount of feedback.
2. Be positive at all times.
3. Be respectful of others.

Task Norms
4. If you know you're going to miss a meeting let someone know.
5. Come prepared with ideas to share.
6. Stay on task.

Consequences of Breaking/Keeping Norms
7. Bring treats next meeting if you miss a day.
8. If we get a good grade at the end of the project, Jackson will buy pizza.

Team Member Roles
Task Roles:
Leader: Jackson
Recorder: Katherine
Editor: Emilee
Power Point: Lance
Watch Dog: Michael
Devil's Advocate: Michael

Relational Roles:
Sensor: Emilee
Listener: Katherine
Harmonizer: Lance
Tension Reliever: Jackson
Keep it together-er: Michael
Problem Defined as What would be the best approach to keeping and maintaining a clean house with five roommates?

Problem Analysis Assigned
Characteristics: Emilee
Stakeholders: Jackson
History: Lance
Policies and Politics: Katherine
Resources: Michael

Appendix 2: Solution Analysis Chart

Criterion	Hire a Maid	Weekly Meeting	Assign Chores
	Split Cost
	Personal Responsibilities	Schedule	
Apply principles	0	5	2	0	3	2	
4 weeks time	5	5	5	5	4	5	
Costs less than $25	0	5	5	1	2	5	
Make area nice	5	3	3	2	3	4	
Maintain time	3	5	5	2	5	5	
Maintain responsibility	0	4	5	2	5	4	
Be realistic	2	2	2	5	4	2	
Totals	16	30	27	17	26	27